The Son Returns (Celtic Thunder)
by Norla
Summary: Damian has had a rough few months since George's untimely death. The only place he wants to be is home. Celtic Thunder


So, hi! I'm Norla, I'm relatively new to CT, but grew up in Northern Alberta Canada listening to the Irish Rovers and various Irish, Scottish and Canadian Maritime and folk songs. I've enjoyed listening to many pieces of music over my life and would say that overall I'm a country music fan with an appreciation for all musical genres.

I was introduced to CT by a fellow music teacher who asked me to listen to Place in the Choir. He intended I listen to a different version than I found, but I was immediately taken with the pretty song, and more so the pretty boys. I ended up buying almost all the albums and DVDs, researching and learning about the group. I've read all I can find on the present members as well as past ones. I have recently found and read all the fanfiction I can and while I'm not a slash reader in general, I have been really enjoying the stories that pair Ryan and Neil, as well as those who pair Damian and Keith, not to mention the Celtic Comet duo. This is my first attempt at writing in that area. I do not write mature themes in general, not because I don't enjoy them, but because I feel that others are more proficient at it, and I'm especially not qualified to write anything graphic in slash.

It's been a long time since a story has been bugging me to write it. Even longer since

I've written a fanfiction story of any sort. I used to write, years ago, Third Watch, ER, Criminal Intent (Law and Order) etc. This story and another have been bugging me for days so the best thing to do is put them down. I'm choosing to keep some past member's current, Emmet, Damian, as well as saying a small goodbye to the beloved George (RIP). Oh, and I'm very Canadian, the Irish accent, while beautiful to listen to, escapes me in writing. I'm emulating what I've read and put in similar diction.

They (Celtic Thunder) are not mine, but I will play with them gently and return them unharmed.

The Son Returns

(Part 1 Keith)

"Just a sec," I interrupted myself and the story that I was relaying to my

Celtic Thunder brothers, "Me phone just shook me pocket."

I took a step away and turned my attention to the small screen and touched the

Message icon.

'I'm comin' home. Flight will be there at 2:36.'

The message was so simple and straight forward. That was so like him, I smiled and responded to the message with an image of a grin. The past weeks had been difficult for him. He had developed an impressive following in the States, but his family, his friends, and his country had been calling him. It was sometimes hard to remember, but he was still only 21.

George's death had rattled us all, we were all still running on autopilot, but Damian seemed to have stalled. Sure, his social media messages had all been positive and happy, excited about the future, but I alone knew differently. I shook my head slightly, returned my phone to my pocket, and with a tiny smile returned to my brothers.

"Sorry 'bout that," I said, prepared to continue with my tale.

"How's Damo?" Ryan interrupted, his concern for our youngest brother colouring his words.

"How?" I started, and then paused. "He's sad."

Ryan nodded and quietly slipped his hand into the hand of his husband. After a moment he let go of Neil's hand and spoke again. "It's easy, bro. Damo, would be the only reason that you would take a message, instead of finishing one of your endless stories." Ryan's eyes twinkled mischievously at me as he pulled Neil in front of himself as a shield.

"Oh, no!" Neil laughed, stepping aside. "I'm not protecting you from that one."

I shook my head, pointed my finger at Ryan, and laughed slightly. "Yer one lucky little guy, thet I have a meetin' in an hour." I turned my back on the small group and headed toward the exit.

"Tell him, we miss him," Neil called out.

I made my way out to my little car, started it, and maneuvered it into the heavy lunch traffic. Moments later I was at a standstill as the flow of vehicles ground to a stop. I glanced around to see if I could determine the cause, then let myself drift backwards in time, while I waited for the traffic to start moving again.

"Damo, go. Ye have te. You'd always wonder, and that wouldn't be fair to yerself."

I had argued with Damian a few years earlier, but the memory was as clear as if it had happened yesterday.

"I know," Damian had answered. "But Keith, I made promises, I…" he twisted the tiny Claddagh ring on his finger. The same ring I had given to him at the end of a special weekend, the weekend of Ryan and Neil's wedding, which had occurred a few months earlier.

"Ye, need to go," I had insisted. "I love ye, too much, te make you stay here. I don' wanta push you into something yer not ready fer yet."

"I am ready," Damian answered. "I wouldn't have accepted the ring if I hadn't been ready."

"Ye need to experience the world, and not from yer little Celtic Thunder safety net." I continued. "This is all ye know Damo, I pushed ye too quickly, ye need to discover who ye really are, not who I want ye to be."

"You don't want," Damian said softly, his soft blue eyes filling with unshed tears. "me?"

"Don't ye even go there luv." I whispered, gathering the young man into my arms and kissed his head gently. "I know what I want. I'll be here whenever ye are ready, I'm not goin' anywhere."

We had been in constant contact with each other when Damian first arrived in the States. Slowly, as we both got busy with our music, acting, and worlds, the frequency of our communication decreased, but only slightly. We talked at least five times a week, and we visited each other every chance we got, every break in the tour had me flying to Los Angeles, and Damian had met the group, me, whenever he had the chance.

Damian made friends, and as I had predicted, had life experiences that were very different from the ones he had grown used to in his younger days. They were opportunities that I wish I had when I was his age. I was happy he had the chance to live them. Thankfully he continued to share everything with me. I was able to live vicariously through him.

George's tragic, and untimely death shook him to his very core. It had never occurred to him that someone so close to him, so seemingly healthy and so, in the great scheme of things, young, could be gone so quickly. If this could happen to George, it could happen to… any of them. His own dad? Me? It had been Sharon who called him with the news. His parents wanted him to come home immediately. It had been me who had insisted that he stay Stateside. That he had commitments, concert dates, to keep, fans to please. In the end it had been fans that had crushed him. When he kept to his schedule and didn't attend George's funeral, many people made hurtful comments on social media. I knew, from my conversations with Damian, that the young man was completely deflated. He felt that he had been backstabbed by the public who had once made him so happy. He needed us, both his biological family and his CT family.

This was why I was not completely surprised when I got Damian's message. Why, without even questioning, I left a rehearsal to go to the airport.

The airport! I looked around myself. The traffic had apparently started moving, at some point. I was already at the airport. "s' a good thin, the car knew 'er way," I said to myself out loud. It was always disconcerting when you found yourself at your destination without any memories of driving there. I parked the car and made my way into the arrivals area, found Damian's flight information on the giant television screens overhead, and sat down to wait.

I had missed Damian dreadfully. From the moment that the boy had left my arms at security for the departure gate, until he called to report in that he had landed safely in Los Angeles, and that yes a driver had picked him up as planned, I was lost. I had not moved. I was still at the airport. Was I crazy? I had insisted that the one person in who meant the world to me, my everything, leave. I had been worried that Damian had been so influenced by me and his Celtic Thunder brothers that he was making decisions, not based on him, but on what he felt everyone, I, expected of him. This was a glorious opportunity for Damian, one that we both knew he couldn't turn down.

It had been an amazing experience. He had made many friends and particularly one good friend during the competition, with who he now lived. Cameron was a great guy. I knew him, or felt that I knew him well from the glowing reviews and information I got from Damo. I had briefly worried about their friendship. I knew that if it came to it, I would give Damian up, to keep him happy. As it turned out, I didn't need to worry. Damo assured me that Cameron was indeed just a good friend, not unlike the friendship between George and any of the other CT brothers.

An announcement was made as I was lost in thought. I looked about in wonder as the people seated nearby started moving toward one of the arrival gates. I followed the crowd and waited as the door opened and closed, letting a few people out at a time and watched as the weary travelers were greeted by their families.

"Hey," a very familiar, deep voice said, startling me out of my daze.

"Babe," I said as my eyes drank in the beautiful picture before me. The tousled dark hair, the shocking pale blue eyes, which were missing a certain spark, but his incredible smile was there. I reached out and pulled Damian into a hug. "I missed ya so much."

"mmmm" was the reply as Damian wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my shoulder. After a moment, Damian let go and looked into my eyes. "S' go home."

Part 2 (Damian's POV)

My sleep was fitful. It was nice to be home. I tried to stay awake until bedtime, but Keith had to go back to the studio for the remainder of his rehearsal, and I found myself napping on the sofa. It felt normal to have supper and climb into bed with Keith when it really was bedtime. Having his familiar arms encircle me was comforting as I quickly drifted off to sleep. I kept waking up, during the night, my body not understanding what time it was, so consequently when morning did arrive, I was exhausted and grumpy.

Keith took my mood in stride and left me with his sunny smile and a quick kiss, as he rushed off to meet the boys. I had some quiet time so I chose to call my family and let them know that I had made it back to Ireland safely. I promised my mom over and over that I would be coming to visit them by the week's end, but that I had stuff to do in Dublin, before I was able to make the trip to Derry.

In truth, I had a meeting with an important producer. I had set it up a week before. The group was looking for a new artist, specifically a Baritone/Bass singer. I cried when I first heard this, but I knew that the door had been re-opened, and this was my opportunity to come home. I made the call, to one of the most familiar numbers I knew.

Sharon promised not to say anything to the boys until I got there and had a meeting with her. It was a formality really, she had said as much. Sharon was happy to have me return to my place, the only promise she asked for was that I not run off to America to do another contest or television series. That was an easy promise to make. In talking to my family, over the past week, I had decided that coming home would also mean taking classes at the University as well as dedicating myself back to Celtic Thunder.

Damian was ok, but I needed to find Damo again. He was there, somewhere, under the walls I had built while being away. I needed to be back with my brothers, I needed to be back in Ireland where everything made sense, where my family was. More specifically, I needed to be where Keith was.

I knew he was concerned that he had pushed me too hard into our relationship. He felt I didn't have the chance to get to know who I really was, and that he was willing to wait and see what I discovered before building, or rebuilding, his life from there. The truth was I still loved him, deeply. I knew who I was and who I was destined for before my Glee adventure. In a way he was right though, it was good for me to go and experience life as a performer, without the safety net of Celtic Thunder. I'd had fun. I made friends; I experienced everything that I could. I had missed out on the normal teenage rebellion stage by having to be so focused on my singing, and the image of Celtic Thunder; therefore during my time in the states many of the things I did and experienced were not reported back to either my mother or, thankfully, Keith. I guess, in comparison, my antics were very mild when looking at those of other performers who were my age. That was until the rug had been pulled out from under me.

George, my substitute dad, the man who had taken me under his wing, pardon the expression, when I was but 14, who had helped me learn how to be a performer. The man who I played jokes with, confessed thoughts and feelings to, and loved dearly the man, who had died so suddenly, without warning, leaving me feeling lost, and strangely alone. I wanted to come home upon hearing the news from Sharon. Keith had convinced me to stay and fulfill my commitments. Then the backlash from the fans, some Celtic Thunder ones, and some of the ones that I had gained through my time on Glee shocked me. I read that I was a spoiled brat, that George didn't mean anything to me and that the very least I could do was go and support the family of my friend.

I was feeling so down about the loss of my brother, that these comments cut me even more. I fell into a little depression, and when I found the advertisement that CT was looking for a new artist, it was the light that I needed.

I smiled a little to myself as I thought about what Keith's reaction was going to be when Sharon introduced their new 'brother' later that afternoon. He was going to be so pissed! I knew I should have confided to him what was going on, but I needed to keep this one little ace under my hat. I so rarely got to surprise him with anything.

"Are you ready Damian?" Sharon asked, two hours later. We had just finished our meeting, and I had signed all the right lines on all the right papers.

"No," I said, suddenly nervous. "What if…"

"They will be so happy Damo," she assured me softly. "I bet Neil will even cry."

The comment made me laugh and nod my head. Yes, he probably would. I was more concerned about the two others, the ones that I really didn't know very well Emmet and Colm. I hoped I could convince them that I deserved to be back, and that I already thought of them as brothers. The three of us were all close to the same age, there may be tensions. It had been like that on the Glee project. I also have vague memories of awkwardness between Ryan and Paul, then Neil when CT first started.

"Okay," I said taking a deep breath, "Let's do it."

Sharon laughed and gave me a quick hug before opening the door to the rehearsal studio.

"Guys," she said "I'd like you to welcome…"

(Part 3 Keith)

"I still can't believe ye didn't bring him here te-day," Ryan said for about the third time in ten minutes.

"I told ye, he didn'a sleep well," I said shaking my head slightly.

"Then ye didn't d…" Neil started, before catching my expression. At least he had the decency to blush.

"His body's all messed up," I explained again. We all knew how bad Jet Lag could be, especially Ryan who always suffered from it more than the rest of us, Damo included. I knew the boys were just tryin' to mess with me. I really didn't care, my Damian was home where, in my opinion, he belonged.

"As I tried to say, "Neil said "Then ye…" this time it was Ryan who slapped his hand over his husband's mouth.

"I wouldn'a say it," he warned with a serious expression.

I couldn't help it, I started to laugh, and once I started it was like a floodgate, and I couldn't stop. It had been so long since I'd had a good laugh. Both Neil and Ryan joined in, but poor young Emmet and Colm just looked at us like we'd gone crazy.

"I'll text 'im," I choked when I finally caught enough breath to talk, "see if he'll meet us fer lunch. I pulled out my phone and quickly sent the message. "If he don' answer right away, he's probably sleepin'. Shut up Neil!" I added before he could say anything.

Neil, who was still trying to recover from laughing, simply held up his hands in surrender and nabbed the water bottle that Ryan was holding and took a big swig.

"Guys," Sharon said as she opened the door to the studio. "I'd like you to welcome our new, ish, artist." She stepped aside and Damo, his eyes shining, stepped into the room.

"Hey," he said, looking directly at me. "I'm back."

Shock is the only thing that I felt. I was frozen to the spot on the floor where I was standing. Then the joy, happiness and relief hit, and I watched as Damian being swamped by Ryan and Neil his blue eyes locked to my own. Shaking my head slightly I broke eye contact with Damian as I grabbed a couple tissues from the box. Either Ryan or Neil was going to need them.

I crossed the room in three steps and launched myself onto the three of them, effectively dog piling us on the floor. "Y've got some explainin' te do," I warned Damian as I caught his face between my hands, and gave him a quick kiss."Welcome back luv."

(Damian POV)

We somehow managed to untangle ourselves after Keith landed on us from somewhere. I picked myself up off the floor and watched with a grin as my boyfriend handed a tissue to each Neil and Ryan, then turned to grab the tissue box for the pair of them.

"Wow, both of them," I said, as I backed up a few steps to where Emmet and Colm were watching silently. "Should we start buildin' an ark?"

My comment was met with silence, the kind of silence that I had been worried about. I took a deep breath and turned slightly to face my fear, or my two fears.

"Hey Emmet," I said, greeting him first as I actually did know him a little.

"Welcome back," Emmet said softly holding his hand out to me.

I then turned to Colm. He was looking at me in a way that was a little intimidating.

I swallowed hard before I spoke. "I'm Damian, we've sorta met a few times when ye were in the States." I said as the nervousness I was feeling manifested itself as a metallic taste in my mouth. I held out my hand to him.

Colm shook the offered hand silently but continued his careful observation of me. It was almost creepy. I stepped a little closer to Emmet and asked "Is he ok?" I indicated the other man with my eyebrows.

"I don' see a cape," Colm said.

I have to admit, not the first thing I'd expected him to say. 'Hi, Welcome, So you're Damian, Get the hell out of here,' any of those other things wouldn't have surprised me.

"Cape?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yah, cape." With his light blue eyes flashing, he slowly started circling me, sizing me up. I kinda felt like calling for Keith.

I glanced around and found him, Ryan and Neil, watching, arms crossed and smirks on their faces. Yah, they'd be no help.

"I thought all superheroes had capes," he said and there was a small twinkle in his eye. Emmet cracked up, and I heard snorts from the other three. "Ye look kinda normal te me. The way these guys talk about you, I thought you were a kin to Superman, er Batman."

"Closer to Robin," Keith chortled from his spot by Neil. I flashed him a look.

"It's nice to officially meet ye, finally, brother," Colm said with a friendly smile. "Can ye still sing, or did they git that out of ye in the States? I mean, I heard ye singin' on Glee. Ye sounded a lot more American tan Irish."

"I don' know," I said with a smile. This guy was going to be ok I decided. He had a quirky sense of humour. "Let's try somethin'."

"Hey," I called out to the others. "What're we workin' on? Anythin' I know?"

"Nope," Keith answered. "We doe'n sing about it bein' easy te be green."

"Ye jerk," I returned, rolling my eyes slightly. It felt good to be back. "Somethin' old then?"

"Seven Drunken Nights," Colm threw out with a grin at Emmet.

"He's not old enough," Emmet replied with a laugh nodding in my direction.

"I am 21," I said with a hint of reproach in my voice, then nodded at Emmet. "Look at you, yer barely old enough yerself!"

"I'm two years older than you," he returned with a laugh. "I'm not the baby of the group any more. That would be you, Damo!"

"It's a good thing that I'm good at it," I said as I looked around at the guys contentedly.

"The son returns," Sharon's voice cut into my private little world of reflection. "So let's get this rehearsal started!"

That's as good as anyplace to leave this one. What I hope that I accomplished in this story was getting Damian back into Celtic Thunder, explain his absence and ensure that he and Keith are in a good place. Hope it was ok. Constructive criticism is welcomed! I feel that the mistakes I make (especially when trying to write with an accent) just mean that I am learning.

Norla


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